Good bye 2017. Say hello to 2018!

It’s now about time to summarize this year. It has been a quite intense year, but still really rewarding. Stability and progress, from my point of view, have characterized 2017. And we are looking forward to an interesting year ahead.

Humlab are part of several different research projects – mainly within textual analysis and data visualization. Associate professor Phil Buckland’s (Archeology) SEAD/VISEAD-project is developing and Humlab has a major part of building the database. Professor Pelle Snickars’ Digital models– and Streaming heritage-projects are further developed in collaboration with Humlab. Humlab is making the 3D-models and building digital tools in collaboration within the projects. Together with associate professor Ben Martin, Uppsala University, Humlab is developing methods for textual analysis. My “own” project, “iAccept: Soft surveillance – between acceptance and resistance”, financed by the Wallenberg foundation, has started.

In terms of new projects Humlab is now part of the so called SweClarin-project, a six year long national infrastructural project, financed by the Swedish National Science Foundation, aiming at developing tools and methods for language analysis (in various forms). Pelle Snickars got a new project founded. Associate professor Anna Foka just received fundings from the Wallenberg foundation for a project on digital cartographies for three years. Associate professor Coppélie Cocq is now part of a Norwegian project on Sami research and digital media. Just to mention some new and ongoing projects – some are not mentioned, but not forgotten.

We are also hiring a new system developer. Some more PhD students will work with us during next year. Teaching together with departments at the faculty continues. Events, such as conferences, workshops and seminars, takes place in our premises – often together with the Faculty. Conferences are attended, articles are published, a lab space is maintained, and new collaborations are discovered, etcetera. Several of Humlab-related people were recently published in a new book (in Swedish) called “Digital Humanities – Humanities in a digital age”, a title reflecting how, at least I (and others), view the digital in relation to the Humanities. And the new lab will be inaugurated in January. The lab space has been rebuilt and adjusted to current and future activities. We all look forward to start working there.

And so on … It has been, as mentioned, an intense year, and it is not possible to mention everything, but I just wanted give a hint of where we are going during 2018. There are still challenges, but there is a roadmap.